It's been 3 1/2 years since...

...I've bought eggs by the dozen

...I've bought milk by the gallon

...Jeremy and I have both had cell phones

...I've been able to talk to family on the phone when I am not at my house

...I've had carpet

...I've read car speeds in MPH

...I've been able to communicate with anyone I wanted to in English

...since I've had friends that lived closer than 40 minutes from me

Today we fly "home" to Utah.  I use quotations because even though we say we are going home it is not our home, not yet.  We have never lived there in our married life, only as college students.  But as I've learned from my travels it soon will be home because that is where my little family will be and when we are together we create a pretty good home.

We will spend Christmas week with extended family and then move into our apartment in Provo come the first of the year.  I'm excited, nervous, anxious, happy, scared and lots of other things.  This is a big move for us.  Everywhere else we moved we always new it would be temporary but Provo is where we could be for the rest of our lives.  That is an overwhelming thought.

Moving from the States was good and hard but coming back to the States is also good and hard.  Have I lost all my social skills during my years of living abroad?  Will I have things in common with the people I meet?  Will they like me?  Will I like myself in this new environment?  I have a lot of high hopes moving back to the States and being able to communicate with people again but sometimes I wonder if my "grass is greener" day dreams will be real or fiction.  I guess time will tell.

Reverse culture shock...here we come!

Anpanman saves the day

Anpanman is big in Japan.  He has his own television series, clothes, stuffed animals, lunch boxes, shoes, hair accessories, toys, etc.  You name it - he has his picture on it.  The best part is that he and his friends are super random and quirky which is why the Japanese love him.

The Anpanman museum in Yokohama was the perfect way to spend a chilly Saturday with the kids.  

Here's the main players - Anpanman, Meanyman, Spark (Kitty), and Breadhead.  The name choices make me laugh.  Really, Breadhead - super original.  Mustard man is another of my favorites.

One of these things is not like the other.  Can you tell who the out of place American kid is?

Liza loved taking pictures with this little camera they gave all the kids when you entered.  Unfortunately, she set it down somewhere and it didn't make it home with us.  Bummer.

Telling Anpanman stories is now a new favorite thing to do at our house.  Obviously I don't know any of the real stories from the show so I just make random things up - so far that has been working brilliantly.

Deck the halls

The decorations aren't fancy but we did what we could to bring a little Christmas cheer to our apartment.  We decorated the "tree", hung Christmas stickers on the walls and ate Krispy Kreme snowman donuts all while listening to Pandora Christmas music.  

Birthday boy

I asked Jeremy what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said he wanted to go out to eat.  That was the plan, but unfortunately we were out shopping for dishes and coats that Saturday and before we knew it the kids were breaking down, everyone was hungry and we ended up in the mall food court.  Not exactly the exciting birthday dinner he was hoping for but it was quick and easy.  And I must say Japanese food courts DO NOT look anything like American ones.  Noodles, fried squid, raw fish and other mysterious dishes abound.  Jeremy has been wanting to try these circle octopus things (I have no idea what they are really called) and they had some and one of the restaurants so at least he was able to try something fun and new.

His actual birthday was on Sunday.  I got him two sushi mats so he can make his own sushi and a cooking session with a Japanese lady.  I met Hiromi at an indoor play place that I take the kids and so offered to teach Jeremy how to cook some authentic Japanese dishes.  We went to her house Sunday night and she had everything ready and so many different things for us to try.  

Afterwards we came home and had ice cream sundae's.  We don't have an oven so cake was a bit out of the question.  I had spent some time looking up how to make brownies and carrot cake in the microwave but we weren't sure they would taste that great so Jeremy opted for ice cream sundae's with all the toppings.  Probably the wisest choice.

Love this old man!

Extra pictures of the fun.

A Kamakura Thanksgiving

Jeremy took Thanksgiving day off and we found ourselves in Kamakura.  It was my third time to the city and I'm still seeing new temples.  The city is full of them!

This time around we started with the Engaku-ji temple.  After that it was the Kencho-ji and the Hase-dera (our favorite).

The leaves were starting to change color and it looked beautiful against all the temples and shrines.  Our friend, Todd, came with us and was able to snap a few family pictures for us throughout the day.  I love how they turned out.  We had perfect weather and enjoyed wonderful views of Mt. Fuji, autumn leaves and fun statues.

From Kamakura we went straight to our church building to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner - American style.  We go to church with all the Americans that live on the Navy base near our house and they all have access to yummy American food so there was no shortage of all our favorites - turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, desserts, etc.  We left feeling stuffed and happy.

I'm a big kid now

We don't have any type of high chair so we are making do with the stroller for now.  But once we get a high chair, finger foods here we come.

GIGANTIC

Nothing makes you feel more gigantic than trying to shop for clothes/shoes in Japan.  We went to look at coats for the kids and while we were at the store I saw some cute coats for women that I thought I would try on.  But alas, not even the XL size would fit me.  The sleeves were about 6 inches too short.  The next day I left Jeremy with the kids so that I could do some shoe shopping.  There is a shopping street near our house that has a few shoe stores.  There are some cute boots that I have been eyeing for a while every time I walk by so I wanted to try them on.  They brought out a size LL (the largest size they have) from the back and it was too small.  I tried the next store and it was the same story.  I was super depressed and walked home feeling very large - especially since the coat incident had just happened the day before.  Hopefully Santa does his Christmas shopping in America because I need a few wardrobe updates and Japan just isn't cutting it.

Kodomonokuni Park

The professor Jeremy works with, Ikufumi, invited us to go with him and his daughter, Midori, to Kodomonokuni Park on their day off.  The part has a little bit of everything - animals, playgrounds, rides, etc.

We started things off right with a pony ride.  The had some clothes the kids could dress up in and Liza was totally loving the cow girl hat.

After pony riding and feeding the animals we hit a few slides and climbing structures.

Liza loves climbing and is actually getting pretty good at it.  She climbed this entire thing by herself.  So went up the yellow part on the right and came down the red part on the left.  I was super impressed with her skills.

The afternoon ended with eating some ice cream and watching a hula hoop performance.